As Certain Dark Things Are to be Loved
by Perspeculi
Summary: Fifty moments between a trickster and his constant.


_I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,_  
_in secret, between the shadow and the soul_** - **XVII by Pablo Neruda

**01 - Name**  
"Loki," she says, and he revels at how it sounds on her tongue, in her voice.

**02 - Hero**  
He is not a hero in the eyes of Asgard, but to her there is no one more heroic.

**03 - Memory**  
In the nights she spends alone and apart from the group in Gladsheim, Sigyn holds on to the memory of Loki standing by her side to get through the cheerful feasts.

**04 - Box**  
Some days, Asgard feels like a too small box neither one of them will ever be able to leave.

**05 - Run**  
"Let's do it, let's run away," she says, her voice breathless as she holds out her hand to him; he takes it without hesitation and lets her lead him to better things.

**06 - Near**  
Where one was, the other was almost certainly not far away.

**07 - Wonder**  
He watches as she goes about her healing magic, a quiet sort of wonder taking him.

**08 - Cold**  
Sigyn shivers, then smiles as Loki drapes his green cloak around her shoulders.

**09 - Red**  
The first time she sees Loki return from a battle badly wounded, her heart stops.

**10 - Thousand**  
"A thousand years," she muses when she realizes how long they've known each other, "and a thousand more, I hope."

**11 - Midnight**  
"My Mother will kill you, Prince or no," Sigyn says when she sees Loki outside her bedroom window, the moon high in the sky; Loki simply grins and waits for her to join him, knowing she will.

**12 - Temptation**  
Sigyn bites her lip hard and tightly grips her goblet when she sees Loki in his ceremonial armor, the urge to go over and kiss him in front of everyone all too strong.

**13 - View**  
"Don't say how I'm more beautiful than the view," Sigyn says teasingly as she leans on the balcony overlooking the meadows of Alfheim; Loki puts a hand to his chest and says, "The one time I wish to speak the truth..."

**14 - Music**  
The finest players in the Nine could not produce music that compared to Sigyn's voice, in his opinion.

**15 - Silk**  
She gasps when he rips the delicate silk of her dress in their frenzy to get to each other.

**16 - Cover**  
"No, Loki was here with me this entire time," Sigyn says innocently when Frigga comes demanding to know how all of Thor's clothes suddenly turned hot pink.

**17 - Promise**  
Sigyn cuts her palm with the knife, wincing only a little, and puts her cut on the twin wound on Loki's own palm; "We are bound by blood now," they both say, holding each other's gaze, "and nothing will tear us apart, not even death."

**18 - Dream**  
The one and only time Loki ever blushes is when he sees Sigyn and remembers the dream he had about her the night before.

**19 - Candle**  
Nothing excites him more than seeing the mischievous glint in Sigyn's eyes, right before she blows out the last candle and joins him in bed.

**20 - Talent**  
"You've a talent for getting the both of us into trouble," Sigyn observes one day, "and thankfully for getting us out of it as well."

**21 - Silence**  
They enjoy each other's silence as much as they enjoy hearing the other's voice.

**22 - Journey**  
Theirs is not a journey that will be sung about by anyone, but rather told to others as a cautionary tale.

**23 - Fire**  
Much like his own, Sigyn's fire is quieter, but no less blazing.

**24 - Strength**  
When his own fails him, he counts himself lucky to have Sigyn's infinite strength to lean on.

**25 - Mask**  
Their masks slip off when they're alone together.

**26 - Ice**  
Sigyn loves the feel of Loki's magic coursing through her veins, even though it feels like her blood is becoming ice.

**27 - Fall**  
Loki falls many times-from the Bifrost, from Asgard, from favour, from grace, from the love of his family-but Sigyn's always there beside him when he lands.

**28 - Forgotten**  
Sometimes it seems as if the only people who will remember them are each other.

**29 - Dance**  
Loki puts an arm around her waist and presses himself against her, and Sigyn's thoughts go to a decidedly unladylike place.

**30 - Body**  
They trace their fingertips over every inch and slope of each other's bodies, until they know them as well as they know their own.

**31 - Sacred**  
"This is something not even you can break, Allfather," Loki says, and he means more than the marriage that he and Sigyn did in secret.

**32 - Farewells**  
They never say goodbye to each other; it feels too final, somehow, and terrifying.

**33 - World**  
One day, he swears, he will see a world bow before Sigyn's feet.

**34 - Formal**  
"This is boring," Sigyn whispers to him during yet another ceremony, and Loki doesn't bother to hide his smirk of amusement from the crowd.

**35 - Fever**  
"Don't you dare leave me, Loki Odinson," Sigyn whispers in his ear as the fever worsens, "or I will find you in Hel and slap you, I swear it."

**36 - Laugh**  
There are many times when Loki makes Sigyn laugh; rarer, though, is when Sigyn makes him laugh, and she treasures those moments deeply.

**37 - Lies**  
They think that she is not capable of lying just as well as Loki, and she's quite content to let them hold on to that delusion.

**38 - Forever**  
Sigyn touches the scar on Loki's palm and whispers against his skin, "forever."

**39 - Overwhelmed**  
They meet each other in the library on the frequent days when everything becomes too much for them to handle, and find solace in each other's company.

**40 - Whisper**  
Many people whisper unkind things about them behind their backs, and Sigyn thinks she wouldn't be able to ignore it half as well if she did not have Loki to help her stand up to the hatred.

**41 - Wait**  
The walk back to the bedchamber will simply take too long, Loki decides as he pulls Sigyn into a darkened nook in the hallway and presses her against the wall; thankfully, she seems to agree as she accepts his hungry kiss.

**42 - Talk**  
"You don't waste words," Loki says, and it's oddly the best compliment she's ever received.

**43 - Search**  
She doesn't hesitate in opening a pathway from Asgard and stepping through to look for Loki.

**44 - Hope**  
"There's nothing without you," Loki says honestly one night, "no hope, or happiness, or anything worth living for."

**45 - Eclipse**  
No one has any chance with either of them, once they find each other; Theoric pales in comparison to Loki, and similarly any person cannot hope to match Sigyn in Loki's esteem.

**46 - Gravity**  
Sigyn puts her hand on his, and slowly Loki reorients himself from the wanderings of his mind.

**47 - Book**  
Loki's gaze flits over the large stacks and piles of books Sigyn has in her study, and falls just a little deeper in love with her.

**48 - Unknown**  
They share a long glance as they think about the path ahead of them, and repress a shudder at the thought that they do not know what's to come.

**49 - Child**  
"Hello, my love," Sigyn whispers to her newborn son, and watches with a tired smile when he takes Loki's finger in his tiny hand.

**50 - Breathe**  
He nuzzles her hair and breathes her in, all magic and warmth and wildflower oils she uses, as the sun slowly floods their bedchamber.


End file.
